Letter from Thos. J. Henley to G.W. Manypenny, 1854

[Cover]
California Sup H699
Thomas J. Henley
San Francisco Oct 15 '54
Reports the condition of Indians on (Noome Lacke) reservation. - buildings in course of erection -number of oxen and wagons purchased. - Sent for a tribe of Indians numbering about 200 living near the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada- their destitution &c. - Appointed D.B. Mooney, Special Agent for Trinity County -Northern reservation promises to be successful.
Recd Nov 11 '54
File
11 Finance
[Letter P. 1]
Office Supt. Indian Affairs
San Francisco Oct 15, 1854
Hon G.W. Manypenny
Comr Indian Affairs
Washington City
D.C.
Sir:
From the Council with the Indians at Storms Ranch of which mention is made in my communication of yesterday, I proceeded to the new (Noomelacke) reservation, and was astonished to find on my arrival there about two hundred and fifty Indians who had assembled there according to an agreement which I had made with them on my visit to that vicinity about three weeks ago. They had built their huts and were busily engaged in gathering seeds and acorns for the winter. They are highly pleased with the protection thus afforded them and with the prospect of bettering their condition. They are quite willing to gather their own food for the present, if they are only protected from the bands of marauding Spaniards, who have for months infested this portion of the country stealing Indian children to be sold as servants wherever a market can be found for them. Many have been sold under a representation by their kidnappers that they were orphans and had been taken at the request of their tribes when it has often happened that the parents had been murdered before the children could be captured. I have taken decided steps to put a stop to this outrageous and infamous practice.
[P. 2]
The buildings now in course of creation at this Reserve are a two story frame for a storehouse, sixty feet in length by twenty feet in width; one building thirty feet in length by eighteen feet in with, for a residence for the employees; a small building for a blacksmith shop; and a coral for the cattle. It is intended to use oxen for most of the work on this reservation as a matter of economy, the grazing being sufficient for cattle the greater part of the year without any expense for feed. Twenty four pairs of oxen and four wagons have been purchased, which are now engaged in hauling out seed for the coming crop. The average price of grain for the supply this winter will not exceed three cents per lb.
I have sent for a tribe of Indians numbering about two hundred, residing about seventy miles east of the Reservation near the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, who on account of the failure of acorns and the destruction of their provisions by the Indians are in so destitute a condition as to require immediate assistance to save them from actual starvation during the approaching Winter.
The Indians in Trinity County eighty miles north of the Reservation are in a similar condition, and I am called upon in a most pressing manner by the people there to give them some aid before the snows of winter shut them in from all hope of relief. It is my intention to invite those Indians to the Reservation this Fall. It is bad policy to feed them where they are, and the expenses in that mountainous region would be too great to be justified
[P. 3]
by the amount of the appropriation. But the price of grain being so low in the Sacramento valley I have determined to invite all who are in this destitute condition to come to the Reservation at once, and the best arrangements will be made for their subsistence that the circumstances of the case will allow, though it was not my original intention to have collected more together this fall than was necessary for the purpose of planting the crop.
Since writing the above I have appointed Mr. D.B. Mooney as special agent for Trinity County. The accompanying correspondence will explain the cause of my action in this matter and will I hope justify this expenditure which it will create in advance of the receipt of funds.
This Northern Reservation promises to be very successful for all the pruposes intended by the Government and I have the highest hopes of its being greatly beneficial to the Indians, of whom many tribes wuld not without some such arrangement have been much longer preserved from almost entire extermination.
Very respectfully,
your obt sert
Thos. J. Henley
Supt Indn Affairs

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[Cover]
California Sup H699
Thomas J. Henley
San Francisco Oct 15 '54
Reports the condition of Indians on (Noome Lacke) reservation. - buildings in course of erection -number of oxen and wagons purchased. - Sent for a tribe of Indians numbering about 200 living near the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada- their destitution &c. - Appointed D.B. Mooney, Special Agent for Trinity County -Northern reservation promises to be successful.
Recd Nov 11 '54
File
11 Finance
[Letter P. 1]
Office Supt. Indian Affairs
San Francisco Oct 15, 1854
Hon G.W. Manypenny
Comr Indian Affairs
Washington City
D.C.
Sir:
From the Council with the Indians at Storms Ranch of which mention is made in my communication of yesterday, I proceeded to the new (Noomelacke) reservation, and was astonished to find on my arrival there about two hundred and fifty Indians who had assembled there according to an agreement which I had made with them on my visit to that vicinity about three weeks ago. They had built their huts and were busily engaged in gathering seeds and acorns for the winter. They are highly pleased with the protection thus afforded them and with the prospect of bettering their condition. They are quite willing to gather their own food for the present, if they are only protected from the bands of marauding Spaniards, who have for months infested this portion of the country stealing Indian children to be sold as servants wherever a market can be found for them. Many have been sold under a representation by their kidnappers that they were orphans and had been taken at the request of their tribes when it has often happened that the parents had been murdered before the children could be captured. I have taken decided steps to put a stop to this outrageous and infamous practice.
[P. 2]
The buildings now in course of creation at this Reserve are a two story frame for a storehouse, sixty feet in length by twenty feet in width; one building thirty feet in length by eighteen feet in with, for a residence for the employees; a small building for a blacksmith shop; and a coral for the cattle. It is intended to use oxen for most of the work on this reservation as a matter of economy, the grazing being sufficient for cattle the greater part of the year without any expense for feed. Twenty four pairs of oxen and four wagons have been purchased, which are now engaged in hauling out seed for the coming crop. The average price of grain for the supply this winter will not exceed three cents per lb.
I have sent for a tribe of Indians numbering about two hundred, residing about seventy miles east of the Reservation near the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, who on account of the failure of acorns and the destruction of their provisions by the Indians are in so destitute a condition as to require immediate assistance to save them from actual starvation during the approaching Winter.
The Indians in Trinity County eighty miles north of the Reservation are in a similar condition, and I am called upon in a most pressing manner by the people there to give them some aid before the snows of winter shut them in from all hope of relief. It is my intention to invite those Indians to the Reservation this Fall. It is bad policy to feed them where they are, and the expenses in that mountainous region would be too great to be justified
[P. 3]
by the amount of the appropriation. But the price of grain being so low in the Sacramento valley I have determined to invite all who are in this destitute condition to come to the Reservation at once, and the best arrangements will be made for their subsistence that the circumstances of the case will allow, though it was not my original intention to have collected more together this fall than was necessary for the purpose of planting the crop.
Since writing the above I have appointed Mr. D.B. Mooney as special agent for Trinity County. The accompanying correspondence will explain the cause of my action in this matter and will I hope justify this expenditure which it will create in advance of the receipt of funds.
This Northern Reservation promises to be very successful for all the pruposes intended by the Government and I have the highest hopes of its being greatly beneficial to the Indians, of whom many tribes wuld not without some such arrangement have been much longer preserved from almost entire extermination.
Very respectfully,
your obt sert
Thos. J. Henley
Supt Indn Affairs